It was certainly no surprise that Bandai Entertainment announced the acquisition of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex -- Solid State Society along with two GIS:SAC compilation movies (GIS: SAC The Laughing Man and GIS:SAC Individual Eleven), since Bandai (along with Manga Entertainment) has been involved in the U.S. release of both seasons of the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex anime TV series.   

While The Laughing Man and Individual Eleven are condensed and reconstituted from the already released GIS: SAC TV anime, Solid State Society is a brand new 105-minute feature directed by Kenji Kamiyama, who directed both seasons of the GIS: SAC TV anime.  Produced by Production I.G. at a cost of 360 million yen (around $3.2 million), Solid State Society will premiere in Japan on pay-per-view satellite TV on September 1st, and will be released on DVD in Japan on November 24th.

 Bandai Entertainment has not yet announced when Solid State Society will be released in the U.S., but it will undoubtedly be a very popular anime release.  More than 1.5 million GIS: SAC DVDs have been sold in Japan, and the American GIS: SAC releases have averaged sales of 100,000 per volume.   

The action in Solid State Society takes place in 2034, more than 2 years after the shapely Major Motoko Kusanagi has left Section 9, which is attempting to track down an ultra-wizard hacker known as the Puppeteer.  While working on the case Batou encounters Motoko and begins to suspect that she might be the mysterious hacker, which, given the relationship between Batou and Motoko, adds several levels of tension to the storyline.